In case you hadn't guessed it already, Brendan Loughnane is sick and tired of the bookmakers constantly writing him off. 

"I had a look at the bookies, he's a heavy favourite again," he scoffs. "Am I doing something wrong here? What are these people watching? How many times do I have to go out there and prove how good I am?

"Yet again, I'm going to do it again, so get ready. August 27th. Mark it in your calendars." 

Loughnane, 31, has the unenviable task of fighting Movlid Khaybulaev, one of Khabib Nurmagomedov's main training partners, at PFL 9 on August 27.

However, the British MMA fighter is certainly not lacking in self-assurance; in fact, he's understandably bursting with confidence as he prepares for the biggest fight of his career.

Since July 2017, Loughnane has won seven straight and is coming off a win against Tyler Diamond in June.

"He's 18-0, a Dagestani wrestler, Khabib's training partner," Loughnane exclusively told GIVEMESPORT. 

"I've surrounded myself with the best wrestlers and wrestling coaches in America. 

"I'm not stupid because this guy is just going to try and wrestle the life out of me like they all do as soon as they taste a bit of these hands, they just shoot for the legs, so that's exactly what I'm preparing for." 

Brendan Loughnane beat Tyler Diamond earlier this year

Fighting out of Manchester, Loughnane (21-3) is well within sight of the $1 million prize money - something he's been working towards since he signed with the promotion in 2019.

Like Khaybulaev, Loughnane has also enlisted the services of a few well-known personalities to help him prepare for the playoffs. 

"Me and Dominick Cruz are very close, since I've been going back and forth to San Diego for over seven years now, we've grown very close, and he's been helping me this camp," the 31-year-old said.

"We've also brought in the number one wrestler in the whole of America at 133 pounds, Roman Bravo-Young, he's just won the nationals a month or two ago, and he's been wrestling the life out of me every morning.

"Frank Hickman, the wrestling coach from Tiger Muay Thai, Israel Adesanya's wrestling coach, Andrei Paulet, they've been helping me every morning.

"I've got a lot of good wrestlers that are just on me every day, man, because at the end of the day, they all say they're strikers until they actually take a punch off of me.

"We've seen what happens, they all just end up scrambling for the legs!"

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Loughnane is ready to defy the odds yet again against Khaybulaev later this month and has dreamed about facing his idol Max Holloway.

Holloway is the former UFC featherweight champion and among the world's top pound-for-pound fighters.

"I'll tell you a story, right, my coach said to me, about 10 years ago, 'I would love to see you fight Max Holloway', this was 10 years ago," he added. "I said, 'Are you f------ crazy, Max Holloway? You must be mad'.

"Anyway, fast forward a couple of years later, I went to Alliance, went to San Diego.

"After being with Dom for about a month, he turns to me and says, 'I would love to see you fight Max Holloway', and I was like, 'Wow, you're the second person who's said that to me'.

Loughnane said: "Everyone knows what I've been capable of for a long time, and now it's the world who are only just getting to see it, after 13 years of hard work.

"He's one of my idols, man, I would love to fight Max Holloway, he's amazing.

"For me to even be put in the same bracket as them to think that that would be a competitive fight is amazing for me."

Read more: Meet Brendan Loughnane, the MMA fighter who is best mates with Jesse Lingard and Marcus Rashford